As I have said before, I completely support Martin Luther King’s dream of a colorless society. I wish I could say we are living in it today, but I cannot. Affirmative Action is not colorless in any conceivable way. It began after the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed. At the point, not many people imagined that a law specifically prohibiting employment discrimination based on “race, sex, creed, or national origin” could have permitted racially preferential ideas such as Affirmative Action to become reality. The entire point of this Act was to abolish racially preferential employment, not encourage it! According to a Senator at the time, Senator Harrison Williams, “to hire a Negro solely because he is a Negro is racial discrimination just as much as a ‘white-only’ employment policy…Those who say that equality means favoritism do violence to common sense.” If employment were truly colorless, it would be based solely on qualifications for the job regardless of race, sex, creed, or national origin as we say it is and better yet, as it should be.
After reading these two blogs, I am sure a lot of people think I am racist. I apologize for giving off that impression. Through these two blogs I actually meant to shed light on how inspiring Dr. King’s dream was and how we have perverted it so egregiously. Despite what you may think, I sincerely wish we had the colorless society of which Dr. King dreamed.
How Is Affirmative Action Colorless?
By Katie Marie - Posted on February 28th, 2008
I agree whole heartedly with you.
Racism is not about how you treat people, it abouts perceiving people as different.
This is a powervul blog that raises some great points.
I think the problem that we face with the entire affirmative action dilemma is whether or not society is ready to simply become colorless. Our wealthy class, so to speak, is disproportionately white. That's a totally irrelevant detail, but it still speaks poorly about equality in the United States, and certainly it creates unrest as to whether certain races still face a disadvantage in this country.
I agree with you from an ideological and idealistic standpoint- affirmative action, or preferential treatment of any kind, should be totally unnecessary and sealed away in our past. But from a pragmatic standpoint, it's something we need to wean ourselves off of, and at least until colorlessness can exist on its own, to some extent certain programs need to be in place.
If we did decide now, "okay, everything is colorblind. No consideration in the hiring process, no race-based college financial aid, no additional admission consideration, no extra tax breaks," then yes, every individual would be on the same level in the eyes of the law. But inherent to the environment in which some people were born, there never truly would be an opportunity to reach the same prosperity that someone born to an upper middle-class white household could achieve. Eventually, I hope to see affirmative action become a distant memory, but I don't think it would be wise for our government to take steps to kill it off right away.
Don't sugar-coat it.
When you start a 4-mile race a mile behind, you not catching up any time soon. Blacks and women started late and we are still trying to caught up. Affirmative action is our help in doing so.
Yes eventually we will not need it anymore and the nation will be colorblind. But we are a long way away from that. We don't want to believe it but we are.
That's a good analogy.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman